MORE than 20,000 Coventry residents could face bankruptcy within the next year because they cannot get vital advice about how to cope with their debts.

A city-wide debt meltdown is being predicted, affecting thousands of people who currently rely on support from advisers who visit their area each week.

Debt-hit residents will be left with nowhere to turn for help when the funding which pays for the advisers expires at the end of this month. The workers would lose their jobs at the same time.

Outreach workers currently run 12 open door surgeries across the city, including in deprived areas such as Stoke Aldermoor, Bell Green, Radford, Longford and Tile Hill.

The six advisers help an estimated 24,000 people per year to cope with their financial crises and to apply for benefits they are entitled to.

But their jobs will be axed when the money allocated to the project by the city's Neighbourhood Renewal Fund runs out.

The advice centre at the Holbrooks Community Care Association (HCCA) in Holbrook Lane, Holbrooks, will also close.

Rachel Lancaster, manager at the HCCA, said the number of people asking for debt advice had risen by almost one third during the last year.

Denying these people access to advice and support would dramatically increase the risk of them facing bankruptcy, she said.

"People are not able to keep up with their repayments and we are going to reach the point when there is going to be a huge debt meltdown," she said. "It is very frustrating because we have worked so hard seeing and helping so many people during the last 18 months and now we have to stop."

Other advisory services in the city are already stretched to breaking point, meaning they will not be able to fill the gap left by the surgeries closing.

The Coventry Telegraph revealed last week how desperate people are queuing outside the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) in Market Way three hours before it opens in the hope of securing a meeting an adviser.

Michael Gilday, manager at the Wood End Advice and Information Centre in Hillmorton Road, Wood End, said: "We won't be able to accommodate these extra people because we often have to turn people away already."